(Adds Silver Lake Partners, XIO Group, Geometric , Orange,
Vivendi ; Updates Okmetic , Gazprom)
April 1 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers,
acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Friday:
** China's Anbang Insurance Group Co said on Thursday it has
abandoned its $14 billion bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Worldwide Inc HOT.N , paving the way for Marriott International
Inc MAR.O to buy the Sheraton and Westin hotels operator.
Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners has agreed to
acquire a minority stake in Ancestry.com in a deal that values
the privately held genealogy website at $2.6 billion, including
debt, people familiar with the matter said. British supermarket group Sainsbury's SBRY.L said its
1.4 billion pounds ($2 billion) offer for Argos-owner Home
Retail Group HOME.L had been recommended by the board of the
catalogue retailer. XIO Group, a China-based buyout firm, is seeking to
acquire J.D. Power and Associates, a unit of McGraw-Hill (NYSE:MHFI)
Financial Inc MHFI.N , according to people familiar with the
matter, in the latest example of Chinese money targeting U.S.
companies. Poland's Alior Bank ALRR.WA has agreed to buy local
rival Bank BPH's BPHP.WA core business from General Electric (NYSE:GE)
GE.N for 1.225 billion zlotys ($328.5 million), Alior said,
confirming a Reuters report. India's Geometric Ltd GEOM.NS said it will sell its IT
services business to HCL Technologies Ltd HCLT.NS in an
all-stock deal valued at 12.37 billion Indian rupees ($186.4
million), as HCL looks to strengthen its engineering and
automotive services portfolio. Debt purchaser and manager Arrow Global Group Plc
ARWA.L said it had agreed to buy InVesting B.V., a consumer
debt purchaser and collections provider, for 78.5 million pounds
($112.6 million), giving it a "low-risk entry" into the Belgian
market. Archer Daniels Midland Co ADM.N has struck a deal to
sell a sugarcane ethanol plant in Brazil after searching for a
buyer for four years, the agribusiness company said on Thursday.
AirAsia Bhd's AIRA.KL founders tightened their grip on
Asia's biggest budget airline with a deal to invest 1 billion
ringgit ($257 million) in it, helping the company to shore up
its finances and cut debt. Nexgen Energy Ltd NXE.V , a Canadian uranium exploration
company whose stock rocketed 79 percent this month, is talking
with multiple uranium producers and buyers about selling a
minority stake, its chief executive said on Thursday.
China's Shandong Ruyi 002193.SZ said it will buy a
controlling stake in SMCP, the French firm behind affordable
luxury fashion brands Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot.
India's Tata Steel TISC.NS is planning to take a stake
in Thyssenkrupp's TKAG.DE European steel unit, German business
paper Rheinische Post reported. Fortum FUM1V.HE and Veolia VIE.PA will enter the
bidding for French utility EDF's EDF.PA Polish heating assets,
newspaper Puls Biznesu reported. China's Hebei Iron & Steel Group 000709.SZ submitted
the only bid for a loss-making Serbian steel mill, Zelezara
Smederevo, before a March 30 deadline, a Serbian government
official said. Finland's Okmetic Oyj OKM1V.HE said it had received a
takeover offer from China's National Silicon Industry Group
(NSIG) for the maker of silicon wafers used in semiconductors
and analog circuits. Russian oil major Gazprom POA GAZP.MM signed
cooperation deals with Austrian energy group OMV AG OMVV.VI as
it tries to secure more lobbying power for its project to expand
the Europe-bound undersea gas pipeline, Nord Stream.
Vivendi SA VIV.PA could buy 3.5 percent of Mediaset SpA
MS.MI , the media group of Italian billionaire Silvio
Berlusconi, with the aim to take control of its pay-TV Mediaset
Premium unit, French newspaper Le Monde reported. A proposed deal between state-controlled telecoms group
Orange SA ORAN.PA and Bouygues SA BOUY.PA to create France's
biggest telecoms operator collapsed on Friday, ending an attempt
to ease a price war that has ravaged their margins.